Christmas is a time for us to take a break. Get away from real life. Leave work behind and relax. Last year, we flew out to San Francisco and took a road trip up the coast north of San Francisco. This year, since we’d just done the road trip through the South West (it was 2030 driving miles total) so we decided we wanted to just go someplace warm and veg out. So we went to the Bahamas! Wheeeeee! We were away for 8 days, staying at the Paradise Island Harbor Resort [[image:bahama14.jpg:Harbor Resort:center:0]] We arrived in Nassau and took a bus to the Harbor Resort on Paradise Island. The Bahamas is made up of hundreds of islands and Nassau is on New Providence. The bus took us across a bridge to Paradise Island. Here are some pictures of the Harbor Resort on Paradise Island: [[image:bahama11.jpg:Vin catching some rays on […]
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Some Internet Stress Therapy For Everyone
Click on this link and I double dare you not to go “Awwwwww…..” Click it!!! Via Fark.com.
Continue readingIn a galaxy far, far away… Southwestern Road Trip Day 8
After a long hiatus, here’s the final part of the Southwestern Road Trip. Finally! I know! Forgot already. But here’s the last part of the story. Our final morning in Flagstaff dawned bright and early. We were packed up and ready to hit the road to head south to Phoenix. We were planning to be in Phoenix by lunch time to meet up with Vin’s cousin Becky, and the drive would take about 2 hours total. So we decided to meander down to Phoenix by way of Sedona. We ended up hanging out at Red Rock State Park, visited Cathedral Rock (which Becky, Vin and I climbed in a previous visit), and then drove on to Phoenix. [[image:us345.jpg:Flagstaff-Sedona-Phoenix:center:0]] While I was speaking with the manager of the Embassy Suites (they fixed our hot water, but Vin’s and my room never got above 60 F the whole time we were there […]
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Rabies anybody?
While Abah and Mak were visiting with us last year, Abah took an avid interest in the wildlife around here. Here’s a squirrel eating from the container of seeds Vin puts out for the squirrels and the birds. I hope it doesn’t have rabies. 😀
Continue readingMakan Angin Puerto Rico Bab 4
OK So I realize it’s been weeks since we went to Puerto Rico, but work is pretty crazy busy lately and I haven’t been able to finish my final Bab of Makan Angin Puerto Rico. In fact I was planning to write this blog in Malay and publish it on August 31st (Malaysia’s Independence Day). Since I have missed that deadline, I will just go ahead and write the entry in English so as not to show the world that my Bahasa Malaysia (or is it Bahasa Melayu now?) has really gone down the drain since secondary school. This entry is a bit more random and rambly than usual. Sorry! One of the places that was close to our hotel was an old fort called San Geronimo and I went for a walk to see if I could explore it. I could see it from our balcony even! [[image:pr60.jpg:San Geronimo:center:0]] […]
Continue readingMakan Angin Puerto Rico Bab 3
Continuing our adventures in Puerto Rico. After our late night of kayaking and swimming in the bioluminescent Las Croabas lagoon, we had our late night feast and collapsed into bed. Unfortunately we had to get up pretty early to have a good breakfast before we head to catch the bus for the El Yunque rainforest tour. Our tour guide/bus driver’s name was Jesus (hay-soos) a.k.a. Chipi (seriously, this was his nickname, he said). It was a 45 minute drive to El Yunque. After Chipi made sure everybody who had signed up for the tour was on the bus, we set off. 2 of the guests were from Mexico (I think), so we had a bilingual English-Spanish tour, which was fun. On the way there, Chipi pointed out that the part of the sea that we were looking at was the Puerto Rico Trench. It is one of the deepest trenches […]
Continue readingMakan Angin Puerto Rico Bab 1
Now that I travel so much less for work, I have the desire to travel for pleasure – or as we say in Malaysia “makan angin” (literally “eat air”). So a couple of weeks ago, Vin and I went to San Juan, Puerto Rico for a long weekend. We left on Friday very early morning and got home again on Monday evening and stayed in Puerto Rico for only 3 nights. I must say, it was a very convenient trip, especially for East Coasters – it was about 4-5 hours flying time (shorter than going to Hawaii) and you stay in the same time zone so there’s no time funkiness to contend with. Travelocity had a really good deal for flight+hotel stay that ended up being only slightly dearer than just the round trip flight to Florida for that weekend. And, best of all, Puerto Rico is in the Caribbean […]
Continue readingEuropean Adventure VI: Hanging Out in Jaen
We spent a total of 5 days in Jaen, and the days and nights were filled with old friends (new friends for me!), food, and lots of conversations. I was very quickly introduced to doing everything on Spanish time, which is different from the schedule that I’m used to. For instance, when we checked into Hotel Infanta Cristina (Princess Christina) in Jaen, we were told that breakfast started at 8:00 AM and ended at 11:00 AM. I’m used to breakfast hours starting at 6:00 AM in the hotels that I stay at for work purposes in the U.S. Lunch doesn’t even start until 2:00 PM (between 2-4 in the afternoon), and dinner isn’t served until about 9:00 PM. The siesta hours are still observed in Jaen, and Vin and I found ourselves being just about the only people wandering around town during siesta. We did see a few tourists (yes, […]
Continue readingEuropean Adventure I: Surrey and London
Recently, Vin and I went on a 16-day vacation to Europe. We went to a few countries, visited with many friends and for the first time ever, I travelled around the European continent. Prior to this, I had only been in London for 2 weeks in the winter of 1997. We started our vacation by flying to Gatwick where we were picked up by Mei Chin (my bestestestestest friend in the whole wide world) and Colin. We were to spend the first part of our trip hanging out with Mei and Colin at their place in England. *grumble* this is the 2nd time I’m doing this entry. My stupid computer froze and IE died when I was completely done with this entry. All was lost. 🙁 Anyway, we arrived at Gatwick in the morning, and after we dropped our bags off at Mei and Colin’s place, we decided not to […]
Continue readingNorthern California: Part IV
The saga continues with Part IV: The Christmas Seals? Christmas day dawned rainy and foggy in Santa Rosa. When we went to bed the night before, the weatherman had predicted another sunny day. Phaugh! Never trust the weather man! Nevertheless, Vin and I decided we would go on the hunt for Seals (we were told by my former-colleague Don Floyd that the mouth of the Russian River was a good place to find elephant seals). We looked for seals in Eureka and Trinidad with no luck! No ewoks turned up in the redwood forests either. So, after a great breakfast buffet, Vin and I went off to look for the mouth of the Russian River and hopefully some seals! It was still raining pretty heavily though as we drove down the winding road that leads to our destination. [[image:cal66.jpg:Rainy River Road:center:0]] [[image:cal67.jpg:Fog in the distance:center:0]] Finally we get to the […]
Continue readingDeath In The House
We arrived in Sitiawan two nights ago with Emma and F in tow. Today we head for Pasir Mas. However, upon arriving at Irfan’s Atok’s house we were told of two tragic deaths in the family. [[image:fishies.jpg:Ku Lat and Ku Su:center:0]]Apparently there was a pool maintenance error with Tok Irfan’s fish pond and these two fish suffocated due to lack of water and oxygen. Thankfully the rest of the gang are still alright. They’re all good fish, and friendly too. Tok Irfan laid them in the yard to prepare them for a burial. But before it could be done, a cat covertly crept up to their corpses to chew on them some time after the photo were taken. The obscenity! They will be missed.
Continue readingIf These Two Critters Can Be Friends…
… why can’t we all? [[popup:chickenfrog.jpg:(thumbnail):The Chicken and The Frog:center:1]] When I lived in Terengganu, at my first rented house, there was for a time a strange thing that occured daily. Each sunset for a long time (I can’t remember how long; it might have been half a year or so) a chicken would fly up and perch atop the fence by the driveway. Then a couple of minutes later, a little frog painstakingly would climb up the chain link and settle down beside the chicken.. as can be seen in the old photograph which I took of them. I tried to catch the frog making its way up the fence, but as far as I can remember I saw it actually climbing up only once. It was a stealthy fellow. Throughout the night they just sat there side by side. And by dawn they were gone. They seemed like […]
Continue readingIrfan Goes To The Zoo
Last Sunday, Irfan (along with a bunch of family members) went to the zoo! Here’s a series of photos that came out of our little zoo trip. [[image:zoo01.jpg:Immediately after insertion into zoo:center:0]]The crew lead by Irfan walks by the elephant paddock, away from it because he was spooked by the big pachyderms. [[image:zoo02.jpg:Stork lake:center:0]]Irfan and his Aunt Emma with some storks in the background. There’s one bird in flight in the background immediately behind them if you look carefully. [[image:zoo03.jpg:Pony ride:center:0]]Again, Irfan is spooked and refuses to approach a pony, RM2.00 a pop. He preferred to be elsewhere, like… [[image:zoo04.jpg:The jejawi tree:center:0]]…this ficus microcarpa a.k.a. the Malay Banyan a.k.a the jejawi tree. Oh hey, another group photo. [[image:zoo05.jpg:Emus:center:0]]Everyone referred to these as ostriches until we came to the plaque that says that they were emus. The ostriches, we discovered later, were in the the savanna open paddock along with the […]
Continue readingThe Unspeakable Cat
Hastur (the Unspeakable One from the depths of the Cthulhu-mythos pantheon of ancient and powerful gods bent on the destruction of the world and mass insanity of its inhabitants) has not only manifested itself as a cat… it has also started blogging. Here’s an excerpt: [[image:hastur.jpg:The Unspeakable Cat:left:0]] In addition to my slaves and Merlin, there is also a young child living here. I don’t care what his name is. I know that the only reason my slaves continue to care for him is so that they may offer him to me as a humble sacrifice. I await the day of this offering with much relish, for the boy appears quite tender. Does he not? A final observation of note is that Hastur seems to be looking much more agreeable and pleasant to the eye than it was when it was an all destroying amorphous blob of flesh. Click here […]
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Illustration Friday: Wisdom
Someone with great wisdom would be revelling in relaxation, high above the hustle and bustle of the tedium of mediocrity that is the life of regular people. Medium: Physical 2B pencil, with digital colours.
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Duckie Approves of RPGs!
Duckie, the feline roommate of my good friend Shane Welin of Nova Scotia, likes RPG books very much. Eberron, a stack of D&D 3.5 books, Forgotten Realms, d20 Modern, and even some WOTC and WEG Star Wars books. Hisham: What does Duckie think of your RPG books? Shane: She likes em I guess, she sleeps on em all the time. Hisham: She ever join you gaming? Shane: We usually game elsewhere, but the few times we did game here she was all about watching and chasing after dice. Well, maybe she doesn’t read them, but she sure loves to sit on them. And everyone knows cats only sit on books that has high writing and production qualities. So, here’s to you Duckie! May all your d20 dice chases end up as Critical Hits.
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